The 411 on Training and Racing Nutrition

A no-nonsense guide to fueling your body for peak performance.

There are almost as many daily nutrition and race-day fueling plans as there are athletes. Navigating calories, pre- and post-workout specifics can be confusing. Below, IRONMAN partner Zeasorb lays out some of the most basic approaches for new IRONMAN athletes.

Daily training

Triathletes burn thousands of calories throughout the week, simply keeping up with their daily training. That means that following a strict nutrition plan is just as important as following a strict swim-bike-run schedule.

There are a lot of theories out there, and it will take some experimentation to find out what works best for you. For example, many nutrition experts recommend that endurance athletes follow a diet in which caloric intake is calculated as a ratio—one that creates the perfect balance of macronutrients (carbs, fat, and protein) that their activities require. According to Asker Jeukendrup, Ph.D, one of the world’s leading experts on carbohydrate and protein intake on endurance performance, what matters is the absolute amount of carbs and protein (in total calories or grams).

Even if you don’t pay much attention to all the different theories, simply eating a healthy, balanced diet means you’ll perform better and recover faster. It allows you to train harder and get into shape faster, and prevents you from suffering frequent injuries. After speaking with members of the Squareone Training Team in California about their every day nutrition, it was clear that the most popular foods are fairly common staples such as fruits, vegetables, lean proteins and good fats. Most surprising were the variety of unconventional "go to" foods mentioned such as chocolate, chicken nuggets and even baby food! While unconventional, these foods have ingredients that can help boost post-workout recovery, as well as sodium and sugar—additives that help athletes retain water and regain energy.

The big day

In her book Endurance Sports Nutrition, Suzanne Girard Eberle estimates that endurance athletes burn between 8,000 and 10,000 calories on race day. As expected, the majority of calories are burned during the bike and run portions of the race. Unlike protein and fat, carbs are simply used for fuel—the more active you are, the more carbs you need.

Each triathlete must determine whether his or her body responds best to solids or liquids and come up with a solution that not only provides sufficient energy on race day, but also allows him or her to perform at their best. Experts will tell you that there are no hard rules for whether solid foods or liquids are better during a race; however, John Ivy and Robert Portman advise a 3:1 ratio of liquid to solid calories for long triathlons in their book The Performance Zone.

No matter what type of strategy you follow for race day, make sure you practice it well in advance of your race. It’s important to know what your body can handle during a strenuous race and to train your body to metabolize what you consume in those conditions. Learn more about strategies for race-day nutrition here.

This article is sponsored by Zeasorb®, the official anti-chafing and anti-fungal partner of IRONMAN.